Always prospecting for the next treasure of an idea.

Using Google Docs to Create and Embed an On-line Quiz

I am a Google Docs novice. I just started using them about a month ago. This week I learned how to create a quiz using Google Docs forms. Then I embedded it in a page of our class wiki. Many of you may be saying “Well, duh!,” but I didn’t know you could do this, and I think it is so cool.

Once again this is something I learned through my ongoing professional development on Twitter. I’m not even going to try to explain it to you, because I couldn’t possibly do it as well as Richard Byrne, (@rmbyrne on Twitter), on his blog, “Free Technology for Teachers”. His post from Friday, January 29, 2010, How to Publish a Quiz Using Google Docs, explains it all.

You can create a quiz including multiple choice questions, essay, check lists, or a short line of text. I found it easy to create the quiz and easy to embed it. Once it was embedded, it was simple for my fourth graders to use.

I tested it first, by taking the quiz myself. This turned out to be a really good idea, because then my answers were posted first on the spreadsheet, and that gave me my answer key. Your first question needs to be “Student Name” so you know whose work you are looking at. All the answers that students give are displayed neatly on a spreadsheet.

I really liked the spreadsheet. It made it easy to analyze the questions that my students had difficulty with. Now I know where reteaching is necessary. When it came to grading the quiz, I found it easier to print off the spreadsheet. Then it was very easy to correct the quiz and interpret the results. There is also a date stamp, so you know when each student completed their work.

Google Docs are so great for those of us who work on multiple computers. Thanks, Richard Byrne, for teaching me something new!

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I’m happy to read that my instructions helped you use Google Docs. I too find it useful to be able to analyze my students’ responses in a spreadsheet. There’s something about seeing all of the answers on one page that makes it easier to analyze compared to flipping through pages of paper.

[…] Class Wiki. That is something else I learned this year, and I blogged about it in my post, Using Google Docs to Create and Embed an On-line Quiz. As I was getting ready to analyze the data, I clicked on summary, and accidentally learned it […]

Hello…just trying to develop this & cannot get it to send results to the student. It keeps offering “see spreadsheet”…not sure if this is because I am using another email address that I have ok’d for editing as my test email. I don’t want other students seeing how their peers did but do want them to get an ‘auto-reposnse” of right answers and how they did. Any suggestions?

Caroline, I don’t know of anyway to send the results to the student. It does collect the information into a spread sheet. I have printed off a copy of the spread sheet, cut it apart, and given each student their part.

About

My name is Barbara Day, and I just completed my twenty-fifth year of teaching. During that time I have taught first, second, third, and fourth grades. For the past 22 years, I have been teaching in an Iowa public school of choice. Our school is a traditional school that teaches the Core Knowledge curriculum, in addition to regular school district curriculum. This means that in fourth grade, we study everything from the American Revolution to Medieval history. As a teacher, I am constantly a student, and as I learn, the kids learn with me. As a teacher, I am also an actor, an artist, a writer, and a graphic designer. I have always said that one of the great things about being a teacher is you can color, cut and paste, build things, and play games with the kids, and no one questions your maturity or sanity. Teaching can keep you young or age you, and often it does both, all on the same day.

Mostly I am a student of life. I am still trying to figure things out, both on a personal and professional level. This blog is just part of my attempt to reflect and learn more about myself and the world around me.

Welcome to My Blog!

I have just completed my 25th year in the classroom. I've spent 22 of those years teaching at the same school. During that time I've taught grades 1 through 4, but I've spent the past fifteen years in 4th grade. I do not profess to be an expert on anything, except the classroom, and anyone who spends any time at all in the classroom, knows that no one is really an expert on the classroom.
Teaching is ever changing, frequently challenging, but never boring. I am always prospecting for the next treasure of an idea. I'm sharing some of what works for me, and sometimes what did not work for me. Please share your gems as well. My comments do not reflect any viewpoint but my own.

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